


Watch the World Die

by miriad



Category: Leverage
Genre: Community: apocalyptothon, Gen, Post-Apocalyptic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-17
Updated: 2010-05-17
Packaged: 2017-10-20 13:55:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miriad/pseuds/miriad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world ended in a bang. It all went dark and smoky and fiery. Parker is not opposed to fire but she prefers if it’s not in her own home. Or neighborhood. Or car. She survived because that’s what she does. It’s who she is. Always have an escape plan. She had one and she did. Little good it did her. The world is ending and money means nothing. It is, to Parker, hell on earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watch the World Die

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daffybroad](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Daffybroad).



To a person in love with money, it is exceedingly difficult to deal with the fact that money no longer has any value. Parker hates to say worthless because each and every bill is the child of her heart but she’s not stupid. She knows the score.

The world ended in a bang. It all went dark and smoky and fiery. Parker is not opposed to fire but she prefers if it’s not in her own home. Or neighborhood. Or car. She survived because that’s what she does. It’s who she is. Always have an escape plan. She had one and she did. Little good it did her. The world is ending and money means nothing. It is, to Parker, hell on earth.

So when Nate finds her again, a few pounds lighter looking a few years older, he gives her exactly what she needs. A purpose and a place to go.

Nate has a building in LA. He’s got water access but no power, at least not yet. He’s run into a problem and he needs Parker’s help. He needs her skill as a thief to access some information. Information that could mean a life or death to a lot of people.

Money has no value but other things do. Parker can appreciate that.

People need stuff to survive. Medicine and food and clean water. A man calling himself just ‘Johnson’ is hoarding it, asking for prices that no one could possibly pay but for things they can’t live without. Asking people to sell themselves, to sell their children- it isn’t unheard of in Johnson’s world. It makes Parker want to blow things up- very, very badly.

The world ends and people are still jerks. Maybe even more than they were before.

But she can do something about it. She remembers what it was like to be a kid with nothing and no one giving a shit. So, like always, she gives Nate a chance. Some danger, interesting approach vectors, new equipment to test and perfect- it’s what Parker loved about working with Nate in the past. So, she says yes.

What the hell else is she going to do?

~

 

Nate isn’t what you would call a nervous flier but something in his gut told him not to get on that plane. He turned around just past security and walked back out of the airport. Grabbed a cab and got the hell away from LAX.

The first EMP hit three hours after the plane was supposed to take off and much like all the other planes in the air, it dropped like a lead balloon, killing all aboard.

Nate has stopped questioning his intuition and has just rolled with it. It seems safer that way.

He’s a survivor. He’s a planner and he knows how to roll with the punches. Its part of his MO and it’s the kind of thing that keeps a person like Nate alive. Now he’s trying to use it to keep other people alive as well.

Getting the band back together is plan A. There is no plan B.

~

 

Desperate people are scary. Eliot has always known this but times being what they are, it’s even more apparent. He can take care of himself but there is a limit. He’s found it.

The scar stretches from just above his eye, near his hairline all the way down to the center of his chin. The skin itches and pulls but he didn’t lose the eye and he can still chew and breathe so he calls it a win.

He doesn’t talk as much now, not that anyone would really notice. Opening his mouth and speaking just pulls and it’s not that comfortable so he stops doing it. Most of the people he runs into think he’s mute. He lets them think that.

Eliot reads the message from Nate three or four times before he lets himself make a decision. It’s not an easy one. Eliot is a survivor and he knows that the best way to stay alive in a world where there is no system for the production or distribution of food and clothing is to avoid large groups and keep to yourself in areas where you can hunt and scavenge.

Nate’s plan is the exact opposite idea. Eliot doesn’t like it. But he likes Nate. Trusts him more than Eliot really thinks is wise. And Hardison will be there. Not like Eliot’s missed Alec all that much but someone has to do the talking. And who knows? Alec might just have a few tricks up his sleeve.

~

 

Alec knows that despite the fact that nothing seems to work earth-side, there are satellites up in space that have their own power supplies. The EMP more than likely didn’t knock them out. This he knows less from sheer faith and more because he can see them blipping their way across the sky each clear night. All he needs to do is find a way to connect.

But he’s Alec Hardison. If he can’t do it, it can’t be done and you can take that to the bank.

He’s excited to join Nate, ready to hear the plan and let it lose on the world. Fight against the dark and the danger. Help some people who really, really need it. All the work before was just practice for the big time.

They’re gonna be famous, Alec thinks to himself. Legends. Like Jesse James, although he hopes less dead. Real life Robin Hoods fighting crime lords. Alec bets that Eliot knows how to kill people with a bow and arrow. Which isn’t that hard of a bet to take, seeing as Eliot could probably kill people with a spoon and a nickel.

Alec just hopes that Nate has found a place that still has running water or at least a good well. He needs a bath that isn’t ice cold or even dirtier than he already is. Also, Alec hopes that there is a generator, although he knows that this is all wishful thinking at this point. No one has a working generator.

But. If anyone WERE to have a generator, it would be Nate.

Alec is hopeful.

~

 

Sophie was always a good actress, just never on a stage. At least not an official one. Now she sees the whole world as her stage and she merely a player on it. A small cog in a much larger wheel. She’s not sure if she likes being a cog and if not, does she really want to be a wrench in the works?

Nate’s asking her to be a wrench and despite all her talk of doing the right thing and being good people, this is a bit above and beyond what she had ever imagined when they were simply rich con artists who were bored.

This is dangerous and there aren’t any safety nets to protect them, not any more. No police or government capable of dealing with low level scumbags with far reaching affects on the survivors. Nate is right, this is an important job. Sophie’s just not sure if it’s their job.

But what do you do when the world ends? What is your place in the grand scheme of things when nothing you knew exists any more? It’s a great character piece, Sophie thinks, and just the kind of role she’s always wanted to play. She tells Nate yes, if only because you just never know, do you?

~

 

The winch is old fashioned. All hand done, no electronic components at all. It takes skill to make it stop when you’re falling, especially if you want it to stop at a specific place and without making any noise or whipping yourself into the wall or, say, the window you’re trying to sneak in through. It’s taken some work but Parker’s figured it out fairly quickly. She’s always been a quick learner.

They don’t have any radios. While Hardison was able to figure out how to make them work, the fact that radio chatter is almost nonexistent makes that chatter more noticeable. Noticeable to the kind of people that they are currently targeting. Which could lead to violence and killing and not just of their team. Which is something Nate feels is unacceptable.

“What do you want us to use? Semaphore?” Eliot had been super talkative in the team meeting, the pink scar down his face curling and twisting along with his mouth. Parker had found it fascinating to watch and got caught staring. She does not, as a rule, care.

Parker dives off the roof, feels the rope catch a bit then run, the winch spinning to let the rope free. She counts out the drop, feels it in her stomach as she plummets. She hits the sweet spot and jerks the rope, slightly off center. It catches again and the winch stops spinning, holding it in place. She sways a bit, the wind pushing her along the side of the building.

She takes her time, counting windows from both sides to be sure that she is, in fact, at the right office. It only takes a second, her mind used to this kind of work. It’s been a while but a good thief never forgets.

She pulls out the glass cutters and sets herself against the window, the knee pads hitting with a soft, barely noticeable thud. The slight stickiness on them keeps her anchored in place, strong against the wind.

It’s really dark out. The light pollution of a few years ago is totally gone, as are the lights and many of the cities. Currently in LA, the only real lights that Parker can see from her position are the bonfires and the section of the city that is actually on fire. She told Nate that she didn’t have anything to do with those fires. She thinks he believes her.

The hole in the window is just the right size. She takes the cutter and the glass in with her and unhooks herself from the winch.

It’s an office, like any number that she’s broken into before except for a few major differences. There are no lights. No security systems. And the computer on the desk is literally a paperweight. There is, however, a safe inside. Just like so many of the other places she’s visited before.

This one isn’t hidden. Not behind a painting or under a rug. It’s built into the wall, face visible to anyone who walks into the room. Lucky for the owner that he’s on the twenty-fifth floor and not a lot of people want to climb that many stairs. Lucky for Parker that the guards are mostly on the bottom five floors of the building and she has time, even if they figure out she’s up there.

It’s fairly easy to break into the safe. A simple combination and an old fashioned system that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Parker had gotten used to in the not so long ago. When she hears that last tumbler drop into place, she opens the door and there it is.

The ledger.

She runs a hand over the leather cover and closes her eyes. Here it is, what they’ve been looking for.

The thing is, she thinks to herself, it’s not like they’re getting a lot out of this job. They certainly aren’t getting any money, mostly because it isn’t worth anything. And there isn’t a whole lot of stuff to give away, as no one has any of that either. So right now, the only thing worth anything is food, water and shelter.

And that was the objective of the job in the first place.

There’s noise out in the hallway and Parker knows it’s time to get out. She grabs the ledger and heads back to the window, snapping the rope back on to her harness. Securing the ledger in a special pocket, she dives out the window just as she hears the door swing open.

She hopes she makes it to the ground before they try to cut the rope. On second thought, maybe she doesn’t. Parker does like a challenge.

~

 

Eliot sits on the motorcycle, engine off. No use in wasting the limited gas they’d been able to scrounge up while he waited, especially not after how long it took to fix the damn thing. EMPs, it seems, cause a shit ton of damage. It took both Hardison and Eliot to even get the stupid thing running. They are, Eliot knows, pretty screwed right now.

The wind whips at his face, his hair blowing across his eyes, catching on his scar but he doesn’t move to brush it away. He just sits.

Los Angeles was always weird but after the EMP’s went off it got really weird. He never thought he’d actually hear coyotes downtown but he can hear them now, calling hungrily to each other, looking for that unlucky soul who didn’t find safe enough shelter for the night.

The roaming gangs of desperate people, beyond just the Crips and the Bloods, make it a whole different ballgame. Eliot found that out the hard way.

He’s been in dangerous situations before the EMP and he’s dealt with them after. He’s learned that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

There’s some action at the building, the lights bobbing and weaving on the first floor. Someone has noticed something. Eliot sits up, ready to roll. He can’t see anything on the actual building. It’s too dark and with no moon, it’s even darker. However, he can be sure that Parker’s there, doing what she does, including getting herself into trouble. He waits for her signal, body ready for action of any kind.

And there it is. A small flashlight, Morse code. Come and get me big boy. Oh, brother. Sophie, it seems, wrote the message. Eliot rolls his eyes and kick starts the motorcycle. It’s loud and powerful in the quiet and the dark but Eliot doesn’t care. Keeping the headlight off, he heads for the pick up spot and Parker.

~

 

Hardison sighs when he gets the ledger, the long column of numbers and letters screaming out clear as day that they are in code.

“This is in code. You know that, right?”

“Can’t you break it?” Nate looks at him with a straight face and Hardison frowns.

“If I had a computer and a few days, sure. No computer, not even a calculator, well then, not so sure.”

“I thought you were a math whiz. A genius.” Nate looks him right in the eye with that one and Hardison hears Eliot grunt in reply from the other room. Hardison really could use some orange soda right about now.

“Oh, see, now you’re attacking my ego which isn’t helping. You’re right, I am all that and a bag of chips but this is not the Highlights for Children puzzle page, okay? This is a serious code that needs serious fire power to crack it. Especially if, you know, we need it cracked right away.”

“Which we do.” Sophie slides into the room, her hair pulled back from her face. It makes her look innocent, Hardison thinks, although he knows that’s not true at all.

“So get me a computer that can do this.” Hardison crosses his arms over his chest, decision made. He’s not going to spend eighty years trying to crack this damn thing. He knows what he needs and he needs Nate to get it for him.

“How are we going to do that? No one has any power.” Sophie flops onto the folding chair on the other side of the card table, flicking a finger at the ledger.

“Some people do. All I need is a computer that can link up to one of the satellites up there. They have their own power sources and since we can still see them flashing around up there, it’s safe to assume that they weren’t hit with the EMP. I connect to one of those bad boys, we can get this cracked in no time.”

Sophie looks at Nate who looks back at her, eyes locked like they’re reading each others minds. Which Hardison has not completely ruled out as a possibility. Without a word, something crosses over Nate’s face, like he’s made a decision and he turns towards the other room.

“Eliot!”

~

 

The base up the coast was abandoned by the military when the EMPs went off. They took what they could carry and left to regroup. Nate thinks they headed down to Pendleton but he can’t be sure. No news, no radios, no TV. It’s very difficult to get the kind of intel a project like his needs.

On the bright side, it means that no one else can really get it either.

Nate is counting on a lot of the larger equipment that would have been taken out by the EMP having been left at the base. Possibly a generator or two, possibly a vehicle that could be repaired if one had the time and the inclination. Something there that could power a computer and connect it to a satellite. It’s a risk, a big one, but for Nate, the idea of not trying will only make things continue to get worse.

The trip up the coast is a long one. Before, it would have taken an hour or so by car in good traffic but there are no working cars, really and trying to drive on streets clogged with abandoned and burned out vehicles the EMP had taken out would be almost impossible.

But there are alternatives.

Nate sends Eliot on the bike to Malibu, into the hills. There’s a horse ranch there, the owner someone that Nate had run into when he still worked for IYS who Nate had gotten a painting back for. It wasn’t a great painting but sentimental value goes a long way.

All Nate wants are horses. He’ll even give them back. He should have sent Sophie- she’d be easier to deal with and more able to spin the right story. They both know horses, Nate knows, but only one of them knows hand to hand combat well enough to defend himself. It isn’t safe out there so he sends the one who Nate knows can find his way back. Hopefully with horses.

~

 

Of all the things Sophie Devereaux knows how to do, riding horses is one of her least favorites. It’s not that she doesn’t like the animals or that she isn’t good at the riding. It’s that she was forced to do so as a child for people that she hated for reasons that she never, ever talks about. So the prospect of horseback riding has made her a bit snippy.

Eliot arrives with five horses, all saddled and ready to go, motorcycle left as collateral back at the ranch.

Sophie double checks the saddles and the reigns, the blankets and the bits. She checks hooves and horseshoes, feels the legs and bellies to make sure that all five are ready to ride, healthy and fine. All appears to be well and she lets Nate know. He doesn’t ask her how she knows and she doesn’t offer.

Eliot, a horseman in his past as well, double checks her work. She feels herself getting annoyed, although she knows she would have done the same thing.

Hardison complains in the background about his ass on that seat. Parker ignores him as she checks her gear. It feels normal, like jobs they had worked in the past but Sophie knows this isn’t.

She’s looked at the ledger. She can’t make heads or tails of it but she knows that it’s important. Why else lock it up in a safe?

She’d tried to get close to Johnson before they went after the ledger. She’d tried to work herself into his group of followers and beyond into the inner circle. It had not, to be crystal clear, worked at all. She found out nothing that Nate hadn’t already worked out for himself except that Johnson was a bad, bad man.

And in a world where there are no cell phones, no computers or internet- no electricity or hot water or refrigeration, for that matter- trying to help anyone in any capacity has become a task of Herculean proportions.

“Ready to ride?” Nate sidles up next to her, face drawn and tired but a smile in place. Sophie smiles back at him. She wants to reach up and touch his face, run a finger across the new lines that she sees there but she doesn’t. It isn’t the time.

“Ready as ever. I even have a fancy new hat.” She raises a military issue boonie cap that Eliot procured somewhere in his travels. The brim is just wide enough to give her a bit of shade, which is what the designer intended, she assumes. Nate smiles at her and lifts a matching hat of his own. “Nate, I have to ask. This is quite an effort for something we don’t even know is out there. What are we really trying to accomplish here?”

“Accomplish? We’re trying to stop Johnson and his-“

Sophie reaches up and presses her fingers to Nate’s lips, stopping him before he can really get rolling. She knows that this is more than what Nate claims. This is more than just food stores and water rights. There’s something else here and she can’t quite see it.

“What’s the con, Nate? What’s the job?”

“The con? There is no con.”

“Then why do you need us?” Nate looks at her, eyes wide, mouth in a tight line.

“I need you because you’re my team. Simple as that.” He slaps his hat on his head and turns away.

~

 

The trip is long. Parker doesn’t have much experience with horses so it takes her a while to figure out that the horse will lead itself through the wreckage that is Los Angeles. She can just sit back and relax. If you can really do that on the back of a horse.

Eliot leads the way. He sits on his horse like a cowboy, Parker thinks, just without the guns. Hardison complains about every ache and pain but Parker thinks it’s mostly for show. Nate and Sophie ride side by side, when then can. Parker can tell they’re talking. She hopes Nate will figure out whatever’s bugging him so they can all just get over it together. She figures that he’s not, though, because that would be too easy. Nate doesn’t seem to do well with easy anymore.

There’s a weird mix of smells as they go. Salty tang of the ocean, heavy smoke from the fires and the choking smell of decaying bodies. Gross but Parker has dealt with gross before. Just takes some getting used to and then she won’t even notice.

They stop for a break just north of Malibu. The view is breathtaking to the west but to the east, it’s just a reminder of what was lost. Parker finds herself standing by the guardrail, looking out at the ocean. Big and deep and cold and always changing even if you can’t always tell just what is different. She feels that way, sometimes. But just sometimes.

Hardison slides up next to her and bumps his shoulder into hers.

“Hey, girl. What’s going on over here?” He’s chewing on something, probably beef jerky. She's glad she can’t smell it.

“Just watching the world die. Little by little.” Her fingers make a weird sound as they run along the brushed metal of the guardrail. Not quite nails on a chalkboard but close. She stops, grips the edge of the rail between her fingertips instead.

“Wow. That isn’t morbid. Not even a little bit. Woo.” Parker can feel his eyes on her, can just barely see the look on his face from the corner of her eye. She sighs, just a little. The water looks dark today, waves steady and strong as they pound their way in to the shore.

“It’s all so big. What are we doing?”

“You mean, us specifically or people in general?”

“Us. You and me and Sophie and Nate and Eliot. Us.”

“We’re trying to do what we been doing. Saving the world, one person at a time.” Hardison leans into her again, pressing his side up against hers and stays there. Solid and warm and Alec. Steady. She’s never really had steady, not really and she never thought she wanted it. But she wants it now.

“You think we will?”

“Don’t know. But Nate has a plan. Enough for me at this point.”

Parker turns to look Alec in the eye. She’s never been good at reading people, not like Nate and Sophie. Not like Eliot. She always seems to miss the subtle looks and twitches that give a person away. It’s why she used to like working alone, just stealing stuff and getting paid. She didn’t have to deal with all this people stuff. But she wants to deal with Alec and his people stuff. She wants to know his twitches and tells. She looks into his eyes and she sees that he believes it. He believes in Nate and the plan.

So she decides that she does, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Charity who kindly betaed for me and led me back to the path. Any mistakes are my own and no fault of hers.
> 
> I decided that I couldn't title the story like the show. The job here is pushed back so far and I don't even let them finish running it so I broke out of that mold. Hopefully y'all will like it enough to forgive me. Con crit readily accepted.


End file.
